Visions of Sugar Plums
by teamgai
Summary: Armin and Bertholdt plan a Christmas celebration with the group. Christmas fluff with a loose plot. Eremin, Springles, JeanxMarcp, One sided Reiner-Armin, One sided Mikasa-Eren, probably some others I'm sure.


Armin was six the last time he had seen it. Fluffy, frozen rain.

The older boys chased each other around throwing snowballs at each other, searching for a more entertaining target. Armin wrapped his yellow scarf tightly around his mouth. He hated the cold, but Eren had insisted that he come out and build a snowman with him.

"Armin which ones should we use for the eyes?" Eren asked, holding out a handful of various pebbles he had collected.

Armin reached into his pocket to pull out two glass marbles his mother had given him when he asked her if he could go out. One was forest green with white specks throughout it, and the other was pale blue with dark blue streaks all over. Eren gasped and dropped his pebbles on the ground, forgotten. He reached out to grab the blue one.

"THERE THEY ARE!" the boys shouted.

Something cold and hard hit Armin's cheek, and the marbles fell from his hand. The green one hit the ground, shattering into tiny pieces. The blue one fell into the snow, and Armin began to search for it frantically, hot tears forming in his eyes from the shock of the cold.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Eren screamed at the boys as he chased them.

The oldest of them stopped and stuck his tongue out at Eren. "Whatcha gonna do about it? You're only six and I'm already nine!"

Armin looked up from his frantic searching just in time to see Eren throw the first punch. The bully fell down, and his friends surrounded him.

Obviously proud of himself, Eren turned back around to flash Armin a toothy grin and a thumbs up.

Armin wasn't able to get out a warning before the boy's

friend reeled back to punch Eren from behind. The impact of the punch knocked Eren into the ground. His face was scraped on the ground and began to leak blood. This doesn't stop the boy( he lifted his leg up to stomp on Eren's head.

Armin acted on pure instinct and quickly gathered up a snowball and tossed it at the bully.

It smacked the boy in the face and he winces at the cold. Frozen with surprise he dropped his leg and began to move slowly towards Armin instead, as the other boys closed in on Eren.

"Run, Eren!" Armin yelled. He ran over to Eren and grabbed his hand, pulling him along as he ran towards his home.

Armin dropped Eren's hand when they arrived and looked down towards his feet. "I'm sorry." he whispered. "You got hurt because of me."

"Are you kidding me? That was totally cool Armin! You should have seen his face when it hit him!" Armin looked up to see Eren's huge smile.

"Totally... cool?"

"YEAH! I never knew you were so brave." Eren placed his hand on his friend's head, rustling his hair. Armin smiled and playfully knocked his hand away.

Suddenly, the door opened "Boys? Eren! Are you okay what happened?". Armin's mother's voice was worrisome as she bent down to inspect Eren's gash.

"Yeah Mrs. Arlert! I just fell earlier, I'm fine."

"Well I can't send you off to Carla like this! Come inside so I can bandage it."

Eren knew better than to argue with a concerned mother, so he dutifully followed her and Armin into their home. Armin's mother cleaned the wound quickly and went off to the kitchen to make them some tea.

"Eren! My boy how are you?" Armin's father called from the living room. In his hand was a strange bowed instrument that Eren had never seen before.

"Whoa! Mr. Arlert what is that thing?" Eren rushed toward the man to get a closer look, and Armin followed.

"Father, will you play that song? The one you said is about snow?"

"Of course." Armin's father chuckled at the boys' eagerness and began to play a light melody on his fiddle.

I _'m dreaming of a White Christmas_

 _Just like the ones I used to know._

Beautiful singing came quietly from the kitchen, and Mr. Arlert stopped playing to make sure he had heard it correctly.

The woman responsible for the sounds came walking from the kitchen, holding a tray of teacups. "Why did you stop playing, dear? I love that song." Mr. Arlert smiled and struck up the instrument again.

I _'m dreaming of a white Christmas  
Just like the ones I used to know  
Where the treetops glisten and children listen  
To hear sleigh bells in the snow_

"What's Christmas?" Eren looked confused, and Armin didn't look any more enlightened than he.

The smile that was on Mrs. Arlert's face faltered. "Well, it was a holiday celebrated back before the titans. Now there's just not the resources or time to be bothered with it."

"Mother, please tell us more about Christmas."

Mr. Arlert chuckled at his son. "Well it was celebrated every year on December 25th, which I think was the day before yesterday, correct? It's a day to be merry with your loved ones and to have a grand feast."

"I also believe they exchanged gifts with those they loved." Mrs. Arlert filled in. "Oh!" She got up and moved to another room. When she returned she was holding a small book. "In here is documentation on the holidays before the walls." She cleared her throat dramatically and Eren and Armin giggled at her. "The holiday of Christmas was primarily for the enjoyment of children. They would receive toys from a Saint named Nicholas and their parents. It was also commonplace to cut down a tree and place it in the home with glass orbs decorating it. Underneath the tree is where the presents would be stored until they were opened on Christmas morning."

"The people before the walls were quite strange." Mr. Arlert stated.

"It sounds wonderful!" Eren shouted. "It would be fun to have a Christmas, right Armin?"

"Uh, I think, yes it would." Armin held out his hand to take the book from his mother. In it was a photograph of a Christmas tree, adorned with presents and covered in snow and decorations. It showed a time more peaceful, more livable where people could spare such expenses. They would not dare to do something so extravagant with the food shortages occurring throughout the walls. They would never know a Christmas, but he would never tell his best friend that.

They stayed there, listening to Mr. Arlert's songs and talking wishfully of presents and feasts, until Eren had to go home.

That night Armin's family fell asleep in the living room by the fire. He laid in his mother's arms and watched as the snowflakes hit the window, each one different and beautiful in its own right. Even if there were no presents, no feasts, no saints to save them from these walls, he had had a merry time with those who he found most precious in life.

Armin's "Christmas" was a white one indeed.

Shortly thereafter Armin's parents left the walls.

Shinganshina District never again saw snow.


End file.
